Conventional food fryers are well known in the prior art. Typical deep-fryers include a container in which oil is heated and a poultry rack or food support on which food items are placed and then lowered into the container of heated oil for cooking. For example, the Turkey Fryer Complete Kit available at www.turkey-fryer-online.com consists of a fryer pot having a capacity of from 26 quarts to 32 quarts, a lid, a poultry rack or basket, and a stand having a burner as a source for heating the oil to a sufficient temperature for frying a turkey.
Although deep-fat fryers have become increasingly popular as a way to cook turkey, chicken, and even seafood, they have been increasingly criticized as a safety hazard. One serious problem with conventional fryers, for example, may result when an operator puts a turkey or other food item into heated oil typically reaching a temperature of 350 degrees F. or more. When inserting frozen or partially-frozen food items or items containing moisture into the hot oil, the high temperature causes the moisture to flash off the food items resulting in bubbling-up of the oil and potentially a spill-over of the hot oil into the flames of the burner unit. The spill-over of even a small amount of oil into the flames can result in a disastrous fire.
Underwriter's Laboratories (UL), an independent non-profit product safety testing laboratory, found another major problem associated with conventional turkey fryers. Conventional containers are not stably attached to their support stands, thereby allowing the container to easily separate from the stand and tip over permitting oil to spill out. If the oil is hot, the operator and anyone nearby could be severely burned. UL was so concerned about this and the other potential safety problems of conventional turkey fryers that they refused to certify the entire product line—an action never before taken by the group (see www.wral.com/money/1565168/detail.html, Jul. 18, 2002).
Because of these deficiencies and others inherent in conventional turkey fryers, it would be advantageous to provide a frying apparatus having increased stability especially one having a means for decreasing or preventing oil splatters from spilling-over onto the burner units.